Facundo Cordero

Exeter Chiefs have signed Argentine wing Facundo Cordero prior to the restart of the 2019-20 season.

The 21-year-old joins the Premiership leaders from Los Ceibos in his homeland and follows in the footsteps of his brother Santi, who joined in 2018.

Chiefs’ Director of Rugby, Rob Baxter, said on his arrival: “In terms of what I know about Facundo, he’s 21 years-old, he’s younger than what Santi was when he came over, but someone with some similar attributes. I am not going to sit here and say he’s someone who we have been tracking for six months, a year, because we haven’t.

“Things have happened relatively quickly. His agent let us know he was available and from a lot of nudging and prodding from Santi, saying if he was going to develop and move overseas, then we would be a good team. Ali Hepher and I have had a good look at some of his games and we like what we see.

“We haven’t spent a huge amount of time talking to him, but we are seeing enough quality there to see that it’s a very good move for us. In a lot of ways we see qualities that we saw with Santi, like the phone box type stepping to get in and out of tackles, which is clearly evident.

“There are bits of his game that he will need to develop to get to the very top of his game, but at the age he is, those development years are all ahead of him and we are hoping we can be part of that process.”